The first of a planned three-part series on the dangers of private banking highlights government documents describing plans to confiscate the deposits of individuals as well as cities, universities, counties and pension funds when another banking crash occurs.

U.S. authorities may arrest two former JPMorgan Chase employees in connection with their alleged role in hiding $6.2 billion in losses in what became known as the “London Whale” scandal, two people familiar with the situation say.

In a quarterly regulatory filing Wednesday, the nation’s biggest bank revealed that it faces a criminal and civil investigation into “whether it sold shoddy mortgage securities to investors in the run-up to the financial crisis” between 2005 and 2007.

With taxpayer bailouts no longer an option, a major derivatives crisis could transfer money currently held by state and local governments and citizens—secured and unsecured, insured and uninsured—into the hands of derivative claimants.

The owner of the “icon of American capitalism” is being sold to an Atlanta-based derivatives company for $8.2 billion as Wall Street’s trademark practice of high-energy verbal trading gives way to the digital kind.

University of Missouri-Kansas City professor, author and former financial regulator William Black explains what’s wacky about JPMorgan Chase’s version of events that led to the firm’s $2 billion loss in the derivatives market last week.

We’re guessing that outgoing Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith’s last day on the job Wednesday was pretty awkward, given what he had to say about his employer in a scorching Op-Ed article printed in The New York Times for the occasion.

An old argument says that full or empty bellies lead to contentment or revolt. Recent research supports that claim, showing that spikes in global food prices have coincided with the surge of social unrest and political instability seen recently in North Africa and the Middle East. (more)

Economist and New York University professor Nouriel Roubini explains that globalization, reckless lending and borrowing, and the redirection of income and wealth from industries dependent upon human labor and well-being to those composed mainly of capital ... (more)

If there’s one person we’d want to see grill Goldman Sachs bigwigs about certain fishy pre-financial-meltdown practices in which they apparently engaged, such as their failure to give useful details about ... (continued)

Bank stocks had a surprisingly good day Friday, outperforming the rest of the market after it became clear that financial reform legislation hammered out in Congress would not meddle with precious bank profits.

After a marathon final negotiating session, Congress has cobbled together a historic overhaul of financial regulations for Wall Street. The bill is expected to win final approval next week and land on President Obama’s desk.

In a letter to a ranking Senate Democrat, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called for restrictions on derivatives—those financial instruments whose value is derived from other instruments—but stopped at an outright ban on the trading practices that helped lead to the current financial crisis.

“What is this Goldman Sachs and why has it caused us so much grief?” is a question they must be asking in even the most remote of Greek villages, as they are throughout much of this economically troubled world.

McClatchy reporters have been digging into the shady offshore dealings of Goldman Sachs and what they found in the records of the financial-meltdown villain is as maddening as you’d expect. (continued)

That Timothy Geithner must love the big banks he spends all day talking to. Back when he was in charge of things, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York forced AIG to pay off Wall Street tycoons for all those toxic bets, even though the mega-insurer was busy trying to negotiate a better deal.

After narrowly escaping catastrophe during the financial implosion that began last fall, American International Group—otherwise known as AIG—is leveling out, according to a cautiously optimistic new report from Congress’ Government Accountability Office.

Has Timothy Geithner ever had lunch with a non-megamillionaire who has lost his job or home because of the banking meltdown? I ask that question after reading the list of the treasury secretary’s luncheon dates when he was head of the New York Federal Reserve, a list that the government was forced to provide in response to a lawsuit.

There has been much hand-wringing, not to mention finger-pointing, regarding who knew what, and when, about the financial calamities that have recently come to pass. However, Brooksley Born and Sheila Bair won’t be counted among the willfully or accidentally ignorant: They’ve been named this year’s winners of the JFK Profile in Courage Award for sounding the alarm far ahead of time.

Faced with the glaring problem of indulgence and intractability on the highest tiers of Wall Street’s corporate behemoths, the Obama administration is putting together a plan to make financial institutions more accountable and more transparent to the government and to the taxpayers who granted them buoyancy.